Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for fabricating a titanium-containing silicon oxide material with high thermal stability and applications of the same, particularly to a titanium-containing silicon oxide material with high thermal stability, which is synthesized by a template-based method, wherein a calcination process is used to remove the template molecules and make the material have a high specific surface area. The titanium-containing silicon oxide material is used as a catalyst to directly oxidize olefin into an epoxide.
Description of the Related Art
Titanium-containing silicon oxide materials normally have porous structure with large surface area, able to function as a superior absorptive agent, a catalyst or a catalyst carrier. In 1992, there has been a paper publishing a template-based method for fabricating a silicon dioxide material (Please refer to the periodical Nature, vol. 359 (1992), p. 710). The abovementioned method uses a calcination process to remove the organic template and make the silicon dioxide material have a higher specific surface area and a catalytic activity. In addition to the calcination process, the organic template can also be removed with an extraction process (Please refer to the periodical J. Catal. vol. 168 (1997), p. 194, and the U.S. Pat. No. 5,143,879).
In the template-based method for fabricating titanium-containing silicon oxide material, titanium is introduced into a silicon dioxide material having high surface area to diversify the catalytic activity of the material. However, titanium is sensitive to temperature. If the titanium-containing silicon oxide is fabricated with the template-based method and calcined to remove the organic template, the catalytic activity of the material will be degraded (Please refer to the periodical Nature vol. 368 (1994), p. 321; J. Catal. vol. 235 (2005), p. 423; J. Catal. vol. 254 (2008), p. 64; J. Catal. vol. 263 (2009), p. 75). In order to keep out of the intrinsic temperature sensitivity of titanium, the organic template of the titanium-containing silicon oxide fabricated with the template-based method should be removed with an extraction method lest the superior catalytic activity be degraded (Please refer to U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,018,950, 6,887,823, and 6,512,128).
However, in comparison with the extraction method, the calcination method to remove the organic template has many advantages, including less organic residual material, higher mechanical strength, higher hydrothermal stability, less equipment, and simpler operation.
In order to overcome the abovementioned problems, the applicant of the patent particularly develops a template-based method for fabricating a titanium-containing silicon oxide material with high thermal stability and applications of the same, wherein the organic template is removed with a calcination method to make the titanium-containing silicon oxide material present a superior catalytic activity that can catalyze epoxidation of olefin to generate epoxide.